How to Choose Between Breast Procedures

Choosing between breast lift and breast augmentation procedures can be a little more complicated than it first appears. Sometimes you’ll actually need both procedures in order to achieve your desired final result. Which combination--or which individual procedure--you need will depend almost entirely on your own body and your desired final results.

Choosing Between Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation

In many ways, choosing between breast lift and breast augmentation should be simple. There is no correct answer, only the answer that brings you the most happiness. In other words, the “right” answer here is going to depend almost entirely on what you want the actual outcome to look like.

The Challenge in Choosing Between Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation

But sometimes it’s not so easy to identify those desires. For some patients, the final outcome is more about abstractions. For example, it’s not uncommon for a patient to want to look “more youthful” but not to have a clear idea of what that means in the contexts of their own body.

In other cases, patients have zeroed in on the issue causing them discomfort, at which point it might be easier to determine whether you’re going to choose a breast lift or a breast augmentation. But you’ll still have decisions to make when it comes to achieving your final results. Still, when it comes to breast enhancement of this nature, choosing between breast lift and breast augmentation can be challenging for the patient. That’s why it’s a decision that, if you’re on the fence, is often best left to you and your plastic surgeon to discuss thoroughly (this article is intended for entertainment purposes only).

Defining the Two Procedures

The first helpful step just might be to define what breast augmentations and breast lifts do. The two procedures are quite different and treat a separate set of symptoms, so knowing the ins and outs of each can definitely help patients make a decision:

Breast Lift: As the name might imply, a breast lift is used to, well, “lift” the breasts. Essentially, this procedures is intended to correct the sag of the breasts that develops naturally over time. Surgeons work to reorient the breasts, effectively making them appear more youthful. In some cases of breast lift, the nipple is also re-positioned in order to improve the profile of the breasts.

Breast Augmentation: Also known colloquially as a “boob job” or “breast implants,” breast augmentation is designed to increase the overall size of the breasts. In many cases, this size increase is modest, calibrated to bring the proportions of the body into alignment. Patients have a wide variety of choices when it comes to implant size, type, and material in order to get the results that they’re after.

So when should you choose one and not the other? That’s all going to depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. The tricky part of the equation is that in many cases, breast lift and breast augmentation are used to treat the same general issues. In other words, both procedures can make a patient look more youthful.

Making the Decision

That said, the way to make this decision comes down to one central question: Do you want the size of your breasts to increase? If you do want your breast size to increase, then a breast augmentation is going to be necessary. If you don’t want your breast size to change, then a breast lift is going to be the way to go (assuming you want to look more youthful).

The best way to make this decision is in consultation with your plastic surgeon, who will be able to tell you specifically how each procedure will interact with your body. That’s because all bodies are different, of course–so only your surgeon will know how your body will react to surgery.

Undergoing Both Procedures

It’s worth noting that many patients will undergo both breast lift and breast augmentation procedures simultaneously. This is often the case when patients have a very specific idea of what they want the final results to look like.

For many of those same patients, achieving those final looks will require both procedures. The approach of performing both procedures concurrently is actually not at all uncommon. Many patients take that approach that, as long as they have to undergo a recovery period, they may as well get as much out of it as they possibly can.

And it’s hard to argue with the results. When a breast lift and breast augmentation is performed, both the size and the orientation of the breasts are optimized so as to make the patient look as youthful and vital as possible.

Up to You and Your Surgeon

Ultimately, it’s up to you and your surgeon to determine the best course of action–the best way to achieve your desired results. Because when you choose between breast lift and breast augmentation, that’s what it’s really all about.

About the Author: Nick Engebretson is a writer and marketer who has been focused on plastic surgery for nearly twenty years, discussing the ins and outs of the plastic and cosmetic surgery fields with surgeons from all over the world.